When Slaves Choose Their Slavery

"I hope there will be no decision to allow women to drive at this stage because we have first to respect the wish of the people and the society." — Rawdah Al-Yousif, female "guardianship" activist in Saudi Arabia.

Some slaves prefer slavery: “A prominent Saudi female activist,” Emirates 24/7 reported recently, has come out against the decision by Saudi Arabia to lift its ban on women driving cars.

Rawdah Al-Yousif complained that campaigns to give women the right to drive ,

continue despite the clear response by the rulers of this country that any decision to allow women to drive cars is up to the community not to just 3000 people or to some articles in newspapers or online. I hope there will be no decision to allow women to drive at this stage because we have first to respect the wish of the people and the society…Women are also not ready yet to bear their responsibility and leave their homes at a time when news of blackmail against the women are widespread.

Ah, yes. Women are not yet ready to bear their responsibility, just as we heard in the antebellum South that black Americans were not yet ready to bear the responsibilities of freedom, or in the Jim Crow South that they were not yet ready to bear the full responsibilities of citizenship. This is a common argument that oppressors make to justify oppression; it is unusual to hear it offered by one of the oppressed themselves.

Yet Rawdah Al-Yousif is the prime mover behind a recent campaign in Saudi Arabia called “My Guardian Knows What’s Best For Me.” This involved, according to Emirates 24/7, “sending letters to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia in which women confirmed their full support for an Islamic approach in administering the Kingdom.” Al Yousif expressed her “dismay at the efforts of some who have liberal demands that do not comply with Islamic law (Shariah) or with the Kingdom’s traditions and customs” and railed against what she characterized as “ignorant and vexatious demands” to abolish the guardianship system.

I have to take the position that, if some Saudi women don't want to drive cars, then they shouldn't drive cars. That shouldn't prevent Saudi women in general from being allowed to drive cars. Just because they're comfortable in their chains doesn't mean they should be able to fit others for them...

Being the weaker and more vulnerable sex, women instinctively value security over freedom. That's why government grows from under 10% to over 50% of GDP wherever women are allowed to vote. It's also why, among native Europeans, three times as many women as men convert to Islam. It makes them feel protected.

Christianity used to give women that warm, safe feeling too, before it was washed away by the Sexual Revolution.

If a man is forbidden to beat his wife, he cannot control her, and what you cannot control, you also cannot protect. Did your parents spank you because they hated you or because they loved you?

It is unusual for slaves to defend their slavery only if their slavery is in fact called slavery. If they call it something else, e.g. Sharia or gun control, then most slaves will support slavery (or at least pretend to do so).

I keep saying that if we are going to defeat Liberalism we must attack it not from the Right but instead attack it FROM THE LEFT. This is a perfect example.

Play devil's advocate: expound on how wonderful Sharia is. Women cannot drive. Women cannot appear in public unaccompanied by their husbands. Tell Nancy Pelosi that you are outraged she is offending The Prophet by appearing in public with her head uncovered.

So long as they have the free option if they choose to take it. The problems are deeper than just whether or not they decide to drive. Islam has created a man/woman, husband/wife dynamic that is unrecognizable as normal to those of us in the West, even those of us with a relatively conservative and old-fashioned world-view. Note - I'm not at all apologizing for them. I think their version is poisonous and not at all healthy in most cases (I'm sure there are those who find a way, as a couple, to make peace with it, but they'd be the wives choosing to drive).

I have to take the position that, if some Saudi women don't want to drive cars, then they shouldn't drive cars. That shouldn't prevent Saudi women in general from being allowed to drive cars. Just because they're comfortable in their chains doesn't mean they should be able to fit others for them...